By Nadia Whittome
It is the greatest honour of my life to be elected as the socialist MP for Nottingham East – born and bred in this city, made by this city. I am inspired by the people I have met and the communities who have fought back against the onslaught of Tory cuts.
The movement that has grown within the Labour Party in the past four years is deeply moving, and I am honoured to be a part of that, too. I want to thank Jeremy Corbyn. His contribution to Labour will stand the test of time – he is a hero of our movement, and I stand in the tradition that he did – we need a democratic, socialist party that is serious about transforming the world.
This movement exists because whole sections of our society have realised that they are fighting a battle of life and death. We know what this Tory government will do – it means deaths in our hospitals, deaths on our streets and deaths from hopelessness. As your MP, I pledge myself to the resistance against this agenda of the millionaires against the millions – and I call on everyone to join that resistance.
Join a union.
Get ready to defend your local services.
Get ready to mobilise.
Get ready for the fight of your lives, not just at the ballot box, but in the streets and on the picket lines.
The days of free market, pro-war politics are over in Nottingham East, and in the Labour Party. By the morning, my predecessor and his entire political initiative will not only have lost here, but will be out of Parliament forever.
I will be a new kind of MP. All across the Western world – from New York to right here in Nottingham – a new generation of progressive, radical politicians are taking centre stage. We are working-class, we are women of colour, we know what it feels like to be oppressed and exploited and to be the victim of hate crime. We know this isn’t a game – not for us, not for all of you, not like it is for the psychopaths who run the Tory Party.
Labour has suffered a defeat. But I reject utterly the idea that this is the fault of the left, and I reject utterly that it was somehow because we were too Remain. We must continue to defend the idea of an open, equal society. And we can win.
We are the resistance. I am going to Parliament on Monday – and so are all of you.
• Nadia Whittome is the new Labour MP for Nottingham East, winning the seat from Change UK/Independent Group defector Chris Leslie.
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